


Best Enemies

by purplekitte



Category: Pokemon
Genre: Alien Gender/Sexuality, M/M, Snowed In
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-02
Updated: 2011-11-02
Packaged: 2017-10-25 15:45:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/272003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplekitte/pseuds/purplekitte
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A midnight slumber party</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best Enemies

“I hardly think your pacing is going to help.”

It certainly wasn’t easy in a cave five paces across, but Touya thought it was worth it to dodge Litwick and N to do so. He told himself he might be willing to brave the storm, but it wouldn’t be fair to his Pokémon to risk them like that. Or maybe he was scared, or prudent. Maybe he really did want N stuck in place to grill him, or maybe he didn’t but was willing to put up with him enough to not run out into the storm and dodge whatever Team Plasma members were searching for their king.

“Why don’t you go calm Thundurus if you want to be useful,” Touya snapped.

“He’s not here. This is a seasonal weather phenomenon.”

“It’s just an old wives’ tale; I was kidding.”

“Thundurus is very real; don’t be stupid.”

He was tempted to roll his eyes, but then he already knew N believed in legends like the Hero of Unova and the Dragons of Light and Darkness and he was willing to move vast resources based on those beliefs. It was almost scary, but at the same time, Touya almost believed too these days.

N didn’t ask Touya to stop pacing again: when he got sick of it, he reached out and grabbed him from where he was seated on the ground. Touya lost his balance and fell on his face.

“Ow! Don’t do that!”

“I shouldn’t?”

“No. Gods, how can you be so stupid? Even if you were raised by Mightyena, you’ve been hanging around with your Plasma goons recently, haven’t you?”

“They don’t say things like you do.”

There had to be an explanation for this, because it was immediately obvious at a glance that N was not a normal person. “Is it the king thing? I mean, do you ever have dialogues or do they just say ‘Yes, Your Majesty’ to whatever you say?”

“Of course they do. I’m their king.” He paused. “Is that it? They are parroting by route even when they meant something else? How foolish and duplicitous of humans.”

“Well, you’re really bad at reading the signals that most humans use.” Something else occurred to him. “Do you have a dedicated team always in your honor guard?”

“No. I deal with the humans where I happen to be when I have to. The Sages report directly to me, and a few elite teams, but they are usually elsewhere, busy with their various duties.”

That shouldn’t be surprising, Touya realized. N didn’t even carry around his own dedicated Pokémon, just calling up some of the ones nearby whenever he needed them and having them act as tame as a pedigree Lillipup.

“I can tell humans apart, you know. I don’t like humans; I’m not stupid.”

Touya couldn’t help it--he burst out laughing.

“Why is that funny? Humans have extreme individual variation, more than just about any Pokémon species.”

“Sorry, sorry. It’s true. I never said otherwise. Can you really tell all Pokémon apart?”

“You can’t? I heard that about humans, but I thought you might be different…”

“I can tell my Pokémon from any others of their species, I suppose, but I’d have to really look to notice any physical differences in a flock.”

N sucked at facial expression, but Touya guessed he was being looked down on. He turned to look at the Litwick. They were getting out of the rain, but he bet they were only tolerating this particular cave, one with him in it, because of N. And he really couldn’t see much difference between any of them.

 _I need to get one of those guidebooks for serious Pokémon watchers and start taking notes. Wait, why am I suddenly intending to embark on a difficult project to improve my observation skills? Do I really care that much what N thinks? Even if we disagree a lot, I guess I do want his respect. And it sounds right, like something I_ should _be able to do if I’m going to be worthy of being a Pokémon Master._

N changed the subject. “At least we keep running into each other.”

“We really do. Are you having me stalked by ninjas again?”

N looked at a Litwick intently like he was listening to something it was saying. “She says her former trainer would have said we are connected by a red string of fate.”

Touya sputtered. “Don’t start talking about red strings with someone unless you mean to be flirting with them.”

“That is flirting? Red strings are part of a human mating display?”

“Yes. No. Respectively.” Okay, he was curious, if they were going to be on this topic. “Do you even like humans? I mean sexually, I already know your feelings about humans as trainers or people. Or do you like Pokémon or something weird like that?”

“I suppose I am old enough to be a sexually mature human. I don’t think about it much. Maybe I’m not in season?” N thought about it while Touya thought about explaining that humans were always in season. “Most Pokémon prefer their own species and especially aren’t attracted to others outside their egg group, so it is understandable I have no attraction to nonhumans. On the other hand, pair-bonding with a human sounds unpleasant. The only human whose company I enjoy is you.”

“Agh! N! Personal space!” He had suddenly decided he was very interested in the pores of Touya’s face and their caps were colliding and he had to push him back.

Touya could feel himself blushing. _I’m a guy_ hardly seemed like an argument to someone having issues with being attracted to his very species. And how did he feel? He knew he liked guys too, in general, and N was an important person in his life these days.

“It’s not mandatory, you know. Pair-bonding. If you don’t want a human mate, you don’t have to have one.”

N nodded sharply, still looking straight at him, which was doubly unnerving considering this was _N_ and his gaze usually darted around and avoided people’s face let alone eyes.

“I wonder if you’ll feature in my sexual dreams.”

“Don’t talk about that in public!”

Oh wait, they weren’t in public, Touya remembered, they were in the middle of nowhere, and corrected himself, “Don’t talk about that out loud.” Meanwhile, N was looking at the Litwick and saying, “Sorry.” Right, he didn’t think of them as being alone.

“Human sex is sure difficult to learn about if it is not socially appropriate to speak of it aloud. However does your species manage to reproduce?”

Touya groaned. “Can we please go to sleep? I’m going to have a busy enough morning dodging your minions and it’s going to be horribly muddy meanwhile.”

“I could call them off.” Naturally N would voice that as a point of curiosity, with no implication that he was going to or that he wanted Touya to join him so that such a thing wouldn’t be necessary. Even Touya knew him well enough to know that.

“Yeah, well, I could not get into fights with those I can’t avoid.” It was physically possible. He could surrender, abandon his Pokémon, let Team Plasma win. It just wasn’t going to happen.

It was extremely uncomfortable, even for someone accustomed to camping out and the storm was loud and the Litwick were bright and he didn’t think he’d ever relax with N around, not that he expected him to randomly attack him or something. So he’d certainly be tired and sore tomorrow too.

He didn’t expect N to know any human valedictions, let alone use them. He was very abrupt, beginning a conversation with what he had to say and leaving when he was done. So it was surprising to hear, “Good night, my rival.” He even sounded affectionate.

“Is that some kind of Pokémon endearment?”

“A Timburr one. Mother taught me. Is there a better human word for the one you care about best, who you continually pit your ideals against? Your beloved enemy?”

“Let’s stick with ‘rival,’ shall we? Good night, N.”


End file.
